blackford wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:49 pm
BILL-C wrote: ↑Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:27 pm
A lot of people don't really understand what vintage road racing is all about. Yes there are some groups that are more into putting around doing glorified parade laps. However, most groups like SVRA are legit all-out racing. It's wild to see guys beat the hell out of their 250k Shelby mustangs and vettes and multi million dollar AC cobras. Check out some in car videos on Cobra Automotive's website. Curt Vogt is always interesting to watch. You will see why it is so important to have top quality cranks, rods, and oil pans. Transmissions too!
dannobee wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 11:09 am
Bill, you bring up a great point regarding exactly what kind of "road racing" is intended. Some are that goofy parade lap stuff where drivers aren't supposed to get closer than 50 ft from another car. Then there are the "real" vintage races. One of my customers years ago raced three original Cobras, two 427's and a 289. The 289 was clearly the "better" overall car of the three. The 427's seemed to always break something and I have not so fond memories of replacing/overhauling rear ends. IIRC, they used Dana 44 parts. Even years ago, I was stupefied why someone would take a $1-2 million dollar car on a track with other yahoos who could wreck you in an instant.
You'll find that the members of this forum are legit and not ones that attempt to impress anyone.
crazy_caseys_customs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:11 pm
But I also know (via the forums) a guy who is “quick” in a legitimate B-Production car that ran for 8 years on it’s original (albeit K-code) stock crankshaft.
K code cranks are no different from A or C code cranks. They may have been hand selected for brinell hardness, but that's about it. They can handle quite a bit of abuse and RPM.
But Tracy, you’re telling me things in direct contradiction to what the “legit” folks are telling me…
What Bill-C and Dannobee are inferring, basically, is that anybody who doesn’t have $10k plus into their short block is just going to be doing “glorified parade laps”. And I guess if you’re out there on a weekend that Tomy Drissi is out there in the Chaparral Camaro, then…yeah…glorified parade laps is all you’re doing, but you gotta start somewhere.
I said that to them as a jab, as most racers I know have pretty thick skin, but it was really more akin to me “tapping out”. They made their point. And if I could afford the $25k+ Cobra Automotive turn-key engine, I would buy it. I can’t. And I’m thankful to Bill-C, because, honestly, crank pin size and bearing speed weren’t even on my radar, and they should be.
If I didn’t know a couple folks running some of these events with similar budgets to my own, I might think that what I want to do is not accomplishable, but they are. And they keep telling me that they’re having a blast. And at least one of them is a complete novice, so I gotta think that some of what Bill-C and Dannobee are saying IS bad advice…
No offense, guys.
And yes, the K code crank I’m referring to, that lasted 8 years in a “quick” car, is essentially a stock 289 crank. Unfortunately, when it let go, it took most of the rest of the engine with it. There’s a lot of latitude, in terms of budget and strength, between a stock bottom end, and a custom billet bottom end built on an aftermarket block. And my budget is somewhere in the middle to lower end of that range.